The author seems to minimize the importance of the tunnels and relegates them to figments of the imagination that were used to capture only one Israeli soldier. There is a careful non-mention of the fact that Hamas is a terror organization:

Tunnels have lurked in the dark spaces of Israeli imagination at least since 2006, when Hamas, the militant Islamic movement that dominates Gaza, used one to abduct an Israeli soldier.

Not mentioning the 12-year plan by Hamas to come through the tunnels and kill, maim, kidnap Israel civilians, the author says this:

In cafes and playgrounds, on social-media sites and in the privacy of pillow talk, Israelis exchange nightmare scenarios that are the stuff of action movies: armed enemies popping up under a day care center or dining room, spraying a crowd with a machine gun fire or maybe some chemical, exploding a suicide belt or snatching captives and ducking back into the dirt.

Maybe the Israelis are paranoid or just spreading propaganda, the article insinuates:

Israeli political and military leaders mention the tunnel threat nearly every time they speak, and have gained widespread international support for eliminating them. The military in recent days has distributed photographs of tunnels that troops uncovered, and videos of them placing explosives inside and blowing some up. As part of the propaganda push, the military has also invited a few journalists underground for a tour.

There was no mention of the fact that we are funding these expensive ventures when the author wrote this:

Israeli experts said each tunnel would take up to a year and cost up to $2 million to build, involving dozens of diggers working by hand and with small electric tools. The military has known about the tunnels since at least 2003 and had a task force studying them for a year, but was nonetheless stunned at the sophisticated network they found.

Since October 8, 1997, the U.S. Department of Defense has listed Hamas as a terror organization. Why are we funding them?

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